Just Business
"Oh my stars and
garters that looked painful!"
"Certainly did, Soldoon. If that wasn't a droid, we wouldn't be able to show this kind of thing on daytime holovision. Or, hell, anything but the special channels- oh and now he's taking his opponent to the top of the Tower of Pain, what can he have in mind..."
There's a chittering gasp from the thousands-strong crowd at the action they're enjoying in person, and the commentator's partner rears back.
"He's leaping off the Tower! He's leaping off the Tower! The Force as my witness his opponent is broken in half! In all my years of extreme sports I have never seen anything quite like this, folks!
That's what you tune in to watch, damnit. That's why
this sport is taking the galaxy
by storm."
"Right you are, Soldoon, and Yenga takes the win with a jetpack piledriver from the Tower of Pain. We'll go to commercial as the arena is cleared of debris, and be right back with more
Geonosis Gladiator after these messages."
----
The holoprojector flickers a moment, before stabilizing into a shaky and silent camera-view, punctuated by artistic cuts of static. In the moments between the digital ash, you see snapshots of destruction. Imperial ships blazing over a planet, bombs erupting on cities, people of all species fleeing. You recognize a few of the images from stills of last year's Sloane Atrocities.
"In times like these, life can be fragile, and there's no-one'll help you pick up the pieces."
As the narration kicks in, with a quaint and endearing accent, the images freeze on a Stormtrooper blowing the arm off a human in sturdy farming gear. A caption informs you that this is Galen Urso, a farmer on the path to Eriadu.
"I found that out the hard way, when an Imperial attack destroyed my family farm. I was homeless, alone, and crippled."
The static fades out, and you watch as the woman – Urso – staggers from an overcrowded hospital, face still stained with ash, returning to her burnt-out farmstead, one sleeve of her hospital scrubs hanging empty. This footage is much better-shot, something staged rather than salvaged from a bystander's vidcam. As she stares out at the ruins, a shiny, delicate mechanical hand rests on one shoulder. The camera pans around to reveal a Geonosian droid, which nods reassuringly. The lighting changes, brightening and warming as a matched group of construction and salvage droids descend on the farmstead.
"But it doesn't have to be this way. The [Chrysalis Corporation] is here to lend a hand."
The holo fades to an interview-portrait of Urso, bravely smiling and well-groomed.
"I thought my life was over. They'd gone and burned everything I'd built – everything my momma and her poppa had built. Chrysalis gave me my life back. Now I can get back to work, and help bring this place back on track. It's a real rebirth, and I owe it all to Chrysalis. Heck, I'll be buying a Locust for myself."
She raises a shiny new mechanical arm of her own, hefting a farmer's tool and grins. The original narrator's voice returns, speaking over "before" images of the broken footage of devastated cities and broken battlefields, which fade into "after" images of clean, droid-manned shelters and cleared plains. The last of these is Urso's farmstead, complete with lavish close-up shots of pristine construction work.
"The Locust is the new droid system that's been working to rebuild the galaxy, or at least clear away some of the wreckage. You might have seen it hard at work already, especially if you've been in trouble lately. Well, now the Chrysalis Corporation is bringing you an affordable, civilian model. Whether you're an aid worker, a scavvie, a construction company, or just someone dealt a bad hand, the Locust can help clear away the wreckage. Heck, if you're a business owner worried about the future – like me! – you can even pick up Chrysalis Insurance. They'll keep a specialist Locust unit on standby in your system, ready and waiting for the first sign of trouble."
The holoscreen fades one last time to a pure white canvas, before an animated, abstracted logo of an orange-and-green chrysalis opens up. The letters beneath are sharp, bladed Geonosian, but quickly flip into a Galactic Basic Standard translation. Urso's voice reads it out.
"Chrysalis. Transforming your life."
The Chrysalis Corporation is in association with Galactic Amalgamated Medical Enterprises, Si'Klaata-Toydaria Distribution, and Sukkard Heavy Industry & Technology. Work shown here was completed by Locust droids, but is not representative of expected standards for civilian Locust units. Cybernetic arms not included. This advert paid for by the Geonosis Cultural Export Council.
- Geonosis Gladiator continues its unstoppable march across the entertainment channels, with several new contracts that expand it into Republic and Hutt Space. Some Hutts have contacted Geonosian contractors regarding the installation of an authentic Geonosian cyber-arena to replace their tired old fighting pits.
- The Chrysalis Corporation begins a new venture exporting Geonosian-designed cybernetics with Galactic Amalgamated Medical Enterprises, suggestively designing its frontline models in the mould of popular Geonosis Gladiator cybrid warriors. Rumours of military-grade designs seeing actual testing in the arenas spread rapidly, and Chrysalis does nothing to stifle them.
- Geonosis licenses a civilian model of the Locust to the Chrysalis Corporation, which wields Geonosis' previous charitable reconstruction efforts as an advertising tool, and partners with Sukkard Heavy Industry & Technology to meet demand from local governments and independent concerns.
- With the slave trade facing increasing pressure, The Chrysalis Corporation joins with Si'Klaata-Toydaria Distribution to ease the burden on slave owners across Hutt space by offering impressive and suspiciously-well-targeted discounts on its new line of personal service droids. A furious behind-the-scenes war is waged at Chrysalis between the purists who regard this as an opportunity to push Larva into the mainstream, and those who "want to actually sell some droids, you morons", which ends in the simmering compromise of an accessible Larva backend. Customer surveys suggest this function is utilized by fewer than one in ten thousand customers.
